It sounds fun.
Interesting new variant... to say the least.
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I have had thoughts that are quite similar.
The rook makes non-capturing moves like usual but captures as it was either bishop or knight.
The knight makes non-capturing moves like usual but captures like it was either a bishop or a rook
The bishop makes non-capturing moves like usual but captures like it was either a rook or a knight.
I'm not saying this even be playable in regards to draw rate (possibly, but not sure), but me and a friend were discussing a (as far as we know), new chess variant. The game would still be played on a standard 8x8 board with the same setup as a standard board. The differences would be as follows:
1) Rook and Bishop swap capturing rules. Thus
a) Rooks move orthogonally, but move diagonally when capturing a piece. The rook may not move diagonally without capturing a piece, nor move orthogonally to capture a piece.
b) Bishops move diagonally, but move orthogonally when capturing a piece. The bishop may not move orthogonally without capturing a piece, nor move diagonally to capture a piece.
2) The Queen and King swap capturing rules (With some modifications to address the King's royal influence)
a) The Queen moves any number of spaces in any direction that is not interfered by a piece. Despite the queens retained high mobility when moving, she may now only capture pieces that are one square away from the square she stands on before movement.
b) The King moves one space in any direction, but may move any number of spaces in any direction so long as his move ends by capturing a piece.
i) The King may not capture a piece to get himself out of check, unless said piece is within one square of him (such that he may capture to get out of check as he would in an orthodox game)
ii) The King may move "through" check when capturing a piece, so long as he does not put himself into check by capturing a piece.
Pawns and knights retain their normal functions. Just something fun and slightly weird that my friend thought up. Don't know if it is good, or even playable. Some of the peculiarities that these rules provide that we could think of off the top of our heads were as follows:
a) A bishop threatened by a Rook may move to a square where it then threatens the rook without fear of being captured on the next move and vice versa.
b) Bishops stop being truly colour bound. A player may have two bishops on the same colour square provided that one of the bishops made an orthogonal capture to the opposite colour square.
c) Rooks become colour bound while capturing.
d) The queen becomes less powerful by restricting her ability to capture, whilst possibly allowing for the King to be a more active piece in the midgame, or to even possibly narrowly escape a checkmate before it happens.
We don't know if it would even be playable (such as it causing too many draws), but we thought that it'd be interesting, and possibly something fun we could build a puzzle or two out of.
If you have any extra thoughts, leave them here. We'd be happy to hear them.